Cutting instruments, such as saws, have blades that rotate, reciprocate, or oscillate at high speeds. Some blades include tips that are brazed onto teeth, which are part of the main blade body. In use, a blade can lose one or more of the tips. Because blades are expensive, rather than discarding blades that have lost one or more tips, the blades are often retipped by brazing new tips onto the saw body to replace the damaged or missing tips. Used blade tips can also be resharpened by grinding the tips.
Because blades operate at high speeds, it is desirable to test the integrity of blades before putting the blades into operation, either after initial manufacturing or after retipping or resharpening. Visual inspection may detect large imperfections in cutting blades. However, visual inspection may fail to detect some imperfections in the cutting blade, such as microcracks or other imperfections that are not visible without magnification. Even with magnification and the use of fluorescent dye, microcracks may not be detectable. Microcracks may be caused by excessive heat in the brazing process. Insufficient heat or insufficient flux may also cause poor or weak braze joints. Currently, there is no known standard method for testing cutting blade integrity.
Accordingly, there exists a need for methods, systems, and computer readable media for testing cutting instrument integrity.